Projectile stun guns have traditionally been capable of one or two shots with over 99% of current units in use only capable of a single shot without reloading. The design of the cartridges has changed very little over 30 years. The limitations imposed by the cartridge design require the projectiles to have a barb that allows a trailing wire to be attached to clothing or to penetrate the flesh of the target. This new invention of the projectile stun gun, including the cartridges, a dual delivery cartridge handling system, and the electronics for the generation and delivery of the high voltage, low amperage charge to the target has been designed and demonstrated. This new generation of projectile stun guns will operate much like conventional automatic and semi-automatic firearms with no limitations on the number of shots fired other than the number of cartridges available in the stun gun magazine. The projectiles can either have a barb for attachment, or with the features of the new generation of projectile stun guns and their cartridges, one can incapacitate an individual using projectiles that do not penetrate the flesh. Further, the propulsion for stun gun projectiles has traditionally been either the direct use of a pyrotechnic or the indirect use of a pyrotechnic to rupture a compressed gas container whereas this new generation has a number of “ammunition” options that use pyrotechnics, compressed springs and other means of energy storage to propel the projectiles.
All current projectile stun guns use circuitry that is similar to the well-established technology of Cover (patent Ser. No. 05/270,411) whereby a high voltage, low amperage, pulsating electrical current is used in the incapacitation of humans and other animals.
Projectile stun guns have been in use for over 30 years since the invention by Cover. Cover discovered that a high voltage low amperage electrical charge applied to the human body on the order of about 5 to 20 pulses per second could incapacitate most individuals. (Studies in Russia have also supported very high pulse rates being effective. The authors speculation is that if there is a natural frequency in the nervous system that is optimum for projectile stun guns to incapacitate a human, and perhaps integer multiples of such a “resonate frequency” may also be effective.) Since Covers' initial invention there been numerous designs of the projectile stun gun, however, the electrical charge delivered and the delivery system have been very similar, with the greatest change being to add electronic features and to increase the output by increasing it be a factor of about 4 to 5. Most all units currently in the marketplace produce an open air display discharge of around 50,000 votes more or less using an open air gap on the order of one inch. Pulse rates are usually in the 10 to 20 pulses per second range with some studies indicating that 19 pulses per second might be near optimum. The amperage for each pulse is usually on the order of a few milliamps. The wattage of the units has ranged from the traditional 4 up to 6 W, to modern units which claim to deliver as much as 25 Watts. Modern electronics have allowed the wave form of the discharge to the manipulated and claims are made that this increases the effectiveness of the projectile stun gun. The cartridges have remained almost static in their design in that they rely upon a barb for attachment to clothing or flesh that has a trailing wire to the projectile through which to conduct the electrical current. The wire has been wound in a FIG. 8 configuration to allow for the wire to be dispensed with the projectile without entanglement. The trailing wire is completely dispensed at the firing and is free to fall on the floor which may or may not result in short-circuiting depending upon the integrity of the insulation. Further since two projectiles are required, both of the projectiles along with the trailing wire and means of propulsion for the projectiles has traditionally been a single unit to make up a cartridge.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved projectile stun guns that may overcome one or more of the abovementioned drawbacks.